Directory assistance is a service provided by telephone companies and wireless network providers to help their customers obtain desired phone numbers. Customers call into the directory assistance service and provide information to an operator pertaining to the desired number. Once the operator locates the desired number, he reads the number to the customer or initiates a pre-recorded or computerized recital of the number. Although the directory assistance service was initially proven to be convenient, it remained cumbersome to customers because of the difficulty in memorizing or writing down the desired number provided by the service.
To alleviate this significant problem with the directory assistance system, most telephone companies and wireless network providers now offer a fee based connection service that allows customers to be directly connected to the desired number without having to hang up and dial the desired number themselves. Consequently, the customers are not required to memorize or write down the desired number.
Although the fee based connection service may be convenient, it is undesirable to those customers who do not wish to pay the connection fee. Another significant drawback of the fee based connection service is that accepting the operator assisted connection plagues customers with the perpetual need to call the directory assistance service because the customer is not required to memorize or write down the desired number for future use and therefore becomes dependent on the service.
Therefore, there is a pressing need for a system that allows for the capture and storage of audio information received on the forward link of a communication device.